Lugar, GOP Senate Report Urge Fresh Look at Relations With Cuba

[Psephos]

Source: Washington Post

Restrictive U.S. policies toward Cuba are ineffective, have failed to achieve their stated purpose of promoting democracy and should be reevaluated to take advantage of recent political changes on the island, according to the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The views of Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) are appended to a report by minority committee staffers that calls for lifting Bush administration restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba, reinstituting formal bilateral cooperation on drug interdiction and migration, and allowing Cuba to buy U.S. agricultural products on credit. Scheduled for release Monday, the report stops short of proposing that the 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba be lifted.

A bipartisan congressional majority has long favored easing at least some of the restrictions but was repeatedly thwarted by the Bush White House and the Republican leadership. President Obama pledged during the campaign to lift the travel and remittance restraints, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in written responses to Senate confirmation questions that the administration planned an overall "review" of Cuba policy.

An administration official said yesterday that it was "not unreasonable" to expect that Obama would ease constraints on family travel and remittances to Cuba before he attends the mid-April Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. Latin America and U.S. allies in Europe maintain both diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba.

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Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/20/AR2009022003499.html

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Well, that only took fifty years...

[Xipe Totec]

1. What a bunch of hypocrites!

what unbelievable gall, to act as if they were not the main obstacle to normalizing relations with Cuba.

OMGWTF!

[groundloop]

2. Certainly sounds as if...

They're positioning themselves to be able to take some of the credit for action that is now nearly inevitable.

[and-justice-for-all]

3. Fucking losers...nt

[Judi Lynn]

4. This is hilarious. Republicans fought like they were being drowned every time someone introduced

legislation to end the travel ban, embargo, even get rid of those filthy, expensive propaganda radio and tv stations the Cuban "exiles" in Miami operate, program, manage, staff at the cost of well over $30,000,000.00 per YEAR, and no one in Cuba listens to/watches, since they already have access to radio and tv stations not only from Miami but from the other Caribbean islands, and Latin America, anyway.

There were a few Republicans, but damned few, who knew the time had come long ago, people like John Warner, Jeff Flake of Arizona, even Henry Kissinger, wonder of wonders, but they were few and far between. The rest of them are living in the 1950's, 1960's all over again, people like Tom DeLay, Jesse Helms, Dan Burton, Joe Lieberman, the _Bushes, other redneck Republicans, and you can't see daylight between any of them and the violent faction of the Cuban "exiles" in Florida and New Jersey.

[mithnanthy]

6. I'm looking forward.....

..to the impact of Florida when the restrictions are lifted. I'm curious and hopeful it will be a good thing.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Regarding the "exiles" and their progeny showing up in Cuba? They've been doing it for a long time,

before _{George W. Bush} made Cuba off limits to them, except for once every three years, apparently.

A former DU'er, a Canadian, discussed bumping into a woman in Havana who lives in Florida, and comes and goes to Florida with merchandise she sells there, and apparently had been doing it a long time, with no fear whatsoever of being caught.

The original wave "exiles" in South Florida while moving heaven and earth to keep Americans from ever getting the chance to go there themselves, have always intended to take it over, all over again, just as they had before the people of Cuba threw them out. The prominent "exile" leader in Florida, Jorge Mas Canosa used to believe he would be the President of Cuba as soon as the U.S. invaded Cuba again, and destroyed their government. He was with the Bay of Pigs invasion, but sat in his boat, and never got out, while many of his fellow Florida Cubans ran around in circles, and many got shot or taken prisoner. Mas Canosa survived in fine form and returned to become the Cuban "exile" dominator of South Florida politics, and the little boss of U.S. Cuba policy, eventually Latin American policy, even butting into U.S. military involvement fighting on the same side with the pro-apartheid forces in Africa. He totally influenced Reagan's, _{George H. W. Bush's,} and Bill Clinton's formal positions on Cuba.

http://www.canf.org.nyud.net:8090/es/nosotros/jorge%20mas%20canosa%20y%20reagan-def.jpg http://www.cubavsbloqueo.cu.nyud.net:8090/Portals/0/Bush%20padre%20-%20Mas%20Canosa.jpg http://www.zpub.com.nyud.net:8090/un/jmc.jpg


The Canadian DU'er who vacations in Cuba said that Canadians and Europeans express very low enthusiasm for the days Americans will be flooding the place!

[Psephos]

8. Agreed - my feelings exactly n/t

[Judi Lynn]

5. US embargo on Cuba "has failed": top Republican senator

US embargo on Cuba "has failed": top Republican senator
Published: Monday February 23, 2009

The US economic embargo on Cuba "has failed," top Republican lawmaker Richard Lugar has said in a report likely to fuel momentum for a shift in US' decades-old policy toward the island.

"After 47 years ... the unilateral embargo on Cuba has failed to achieve its stated purpose of 'bringing democracy to the Cuban people,' said the senator from Indiana -- a senior member or the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, "it may have been used as a foil by the regime to demand further sacrifices from Cuba's impoverished population."

The report, entitled "Changing Cuba Policy - In the United States National Interest," is due for release on Monday.

It is likely to frame the debate on overhauling US policy after almost five decades of policy seeking to isolate Americas' only communist country.

More:
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_embargo_on_Cuba_has_failed_top_R_02232009.html

There's a bald-faced LIE in this article in claiming it was _{George W. Bush} who allowed Cuba to start buying food from the U.S.:

But that embargo was tweaked slightly by former US president George W. Bush, who allowed Cuba to purchase US food, as long as it was purchased in cash.

That very restricted, narrow window for food trade opened almost immediately after Hurricane Michelle wiped out Cuba's food supply, and Congress passed a bill to get the ball rolling allowing some Amererican food producers to send a small list of food products, DURING BILL CLINTON'S second term. Period. Don't believe everything you read, be sure to check if you have questions.